The Harry Potter Chocolate Cake was not the only cake we had for my daughter’s birthday party. In her class there are three kids with allergies. One of  them should not eat anything with eggs, butter, milk, strawberries or nuts. So, I made a small pan of banana bread `cake’ for the kids with the multiple allergies.  I made this bread a million times before  as a regular banana bread loaf. It’s so delicious!   Because of the butter allergy, this time I substituted butter with canola oil. Did it hurt the taste? Well, I got couple of emails back from mums asking for the recipe. Here’s the healthiest, no cholesterol, minimum sugar recipe for you and your family to enjoy. Credits for the original recipe go to  Kristia Mavroidi’s book `183 Fresh Ideas’ (in Greek).

Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons butter at room temperature OR vegetable oil OR margarine
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

How to make: In a mixer, beat the oil or butter with the sugar. Switch to lowest or `stir’ speed. Add the flour mixed with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the bananas and the vanilla extract. Do not beat or even overmix. When the dough is thoroughly moist, pour the dough in a greased/oiled loaf pan (or as a small round pan like I did for the party) . Bake in pre-heated 375 F or 190 C oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let it cool off before taking it out of the pan.

Notes and tips: You can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose. I do that all the time when I make the bread for the family and it stays delicious. Also,  you can substitute the all purpose flour with baking powder, soda and salt with just self-rising flour. For a little decoration, I sprinkled confectioner’s sugar on top.

Check some other versions and photos of this recipe: banana bread loaf (photo of the loaf), banana cupcakes with icing , in a round pan, made in Greece with vanilla powder, a slightly bigger version.

Servings: 6 generous slices

Calorie count: 374 per serving

More photos of the same basic recipe

Loaf of banana bread

Sliced loaf of banana bread

Round-shaped banana bread

Banana bread made in dark, metallic, long loaf pan

Banana bread cupcakes. See recipe “Banana bread cupcakes”

Banana bread served with tea

Update 05/25/2014

Yesterday I decided to add 2 tablespoons of chia seeds for more fiber.

Banana bread with chia seeds